The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 11, 2023
In our first reading, Moses said to the people, and that
means to us right here, right now: “Remember….” And later “Do not forget the Lord, your
God, …”
Any of you who
are as old as I am, and are having a hard time remembering people’s names, or
where you left your keys or phone, or what you were supposed to do this
afternoon, you recognize the importance of memory.
So on this Solemnity of the Most Holy
Body and Blood of Christ, it is wonderfully appropriate that we start with a
call to remember. Not just to call back
to mind Jesus’ gift of Himself in the Eucharist, but also to member again, to
put back together the parts of the Body of Christ into one, to re-member the
body of believers that is the Body of Christ.
St Paul in our second reading reminds
us that “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.”
Unfortunately, we miss this symbolism
because we consecrate and use individual hosts.
Convenience has won out over our theological symbolism. I remember a time we used to do Masses where
we used an actual loaf, unleavened bread baked by a parishioner, and broke off
hunks of bread for the Eucharist. Anyone
else remember that? But it was
inconvenient. There were crumbs. And
people got scrupulous about the matter.
None-the-less, we can still
understand the symbolism of what St. Paul is saying. “We, though many, are one body, for we all
partake of the one loaf.” We
re-member, put back together again, the Body of Christ by all partaking of the
one loaf.
And in the Gospel Jesus
solemnly declares: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
Jesus, I
believe, in this dramatic and startling language, is inviting us into very deep
intimacy with Him. When you eat a
hamburger or a pizza or wonderful Texas BBQ, what you eat becomes a part of
you, your flesh and bones. But when we
consume the Body and Blood of Jesus, it is just the opposite. Rather, we become part of Jesus. St Augustine of Hippo said of the Eucharist:
“Behold what you are. Become what you
receive.”
We are united to Christ, and in
Christ to all other communicants. We
remain in Him, and He in us. We receive
the Body of Christ and so become part of the Body of Christ in a very real and
effective way. We can, indeed must, be
His presence in the world. We have His
life in us from eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Thus, we become His presence now. //
The world is
hungry. The world is emaciated,
starving. Not only for physical food and
drink, but for compassion, for honesty, for concern, for bravery, for
gentleness, for truth, for beauty, for meaning and purpose, and for so many
other things. Truly, the world is
hungry.
Jesus yearns
and longs to feed the hungers of the world.
But Jesus can do it only through us. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.” We are
to become bread and wine, true food, for the world and its many hungers. That is what it means to be Christian, a
member of the living Body of Christ.
Bon
Appetit!
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